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Baxter Academy is a charter school in Maine. We are independent, meaning that we are not “owned” by some education company and we are not “aligned” to any particular program that already exists. We create our curriculum, our courses, and our materials. We answer to our students & their parents, to each other, to our Board of Directors, and to the Charter Commission.

Each year, at the end of the year, we get a visit from the Charter Commission. Well, it’s happened for the past two years – I imagine that they intend to continue this practice. The visit is kind of like a cross between an IRS audit and a NEASC accreditation visit. This year the Commission decided to take about 45 minutes in the middle of the day to split up and have conversations with different groups: students, teachers, parents, and community members. At other times they met with administration and the Board. At the end of the day, they gave some feedback to our Head of School:

They reported excited students and satisfied parents. They shared with us, at the end of the day, that teachers reported a strong sense of community, that Flex Friday is great, that special ed students are thriving, but that we need more time to communicate with parents around proficiency based diplomas. Teachers also liked working in start up mode, even though it is hard. Students liked best: the community, being able to connect inside school learning with outside the school, their control of their own learning, choosing their own curriculum, that teachers are guides, that they can challenge teachers respectfully and get answers. They report very little bullying and a culture of kids sticking up for one another.  If they could change one thing it would be to have more space, to add sports, more balanced m/f ratio, more clarity around grading.

“You can tell after even 2 minutes in the building that this is a great school environment.”

Clearly there is more work to do, but getting good feedback at the end of the year makes the rest of the hard work all worth it.

Today was our first real day of intersession. Okay, we had one day of intersession last year, at the beginning of April, and it went pretty well. But, this week is a whole intersession plan. The theme of the week is “community.” We are still building this school, we’re barely into year two, and finding our identity. The focus for today was “community inside” meaning inside the building, among ourselves. We had time to work on digital portfolios – the kids have student-led conferences on Thursday and have lots to prepare. As they were working together in our advisory, there was lots of sharing and supporting of each other. I am lucky to be advisor to such a kind group of students.

We had a round of what we’re calling “mixers” because we’re able to have a structured discussion across grade levels and break down those walls. The mixer was facilitated by student senators and focused on academic challenge and rigor. What do we want our school to be? Do we want to be challenged in class? What is the student responsibility regarding challenge and school work? It was interesting to hear the students talk about an idealized view of the “perfect” student: hard-working, organized, focused, driven. It wasn’t presented to them that way, but that’s how they responded. At the end of the discussion, I asked how many of them achieved that ideal, and got a lot of “um, well.” Frankly, I doubt that I could achieve the ideal that they set forth. But sometimes, I think that teachers do expect that ideal student to land in front of them every day.

After lunch, we relaxed with a community dessert and an open mic session at a hall nearby, where we could all fit comfortably and enjoy each other’s company. Students and faculty performed. We heard from lots of different groups, from storytelling to spoken word to musical talent. I’ve had my time performing on stage, and know how nerve-wracking it can be. But it’s easier to get up in front of a group of strangers than it is to perform for your peers and colleagues and students. My colleagues and students were very courageous and very supportive of each other today.

And that’s how we build community.

One of the founding principles of Baxter Academy is the idea that working on big, long-term projects is worthwhile. These are projects that students design, sometimes in conjunction with a faculty member, sometimes on their own. While the process worked pretty well last year, the student feedback indicated that they wanted to be held more accountable for their project proposal, for the work they did on the project, and what they were able to accomplish. So this year we ramped up the proposal process. Project teams have to write a proposal using this template and submit it to a review panel consisting of a teacher, administrator, and student senator. Almost every proposal fails to be approved on the first try, but that’s okay. The review process has made the proposals more focused and much stronger.

Since we devote every Friday to this project work, it’s important that the project teams have a clear idea of what they want to accomplish and what they need to do each week. Which begs the question, “How do you teach project management?” Gantt charts are nice, but require good guesses at tasks and completion times. I have experience teaching the critical path method, which I think it pretty cool, but again, you need to have an idea of what the tasks are and how long each task will take. And the “projects” were all hypothetical, from a textbook. Nobody was actually trying to do them. Our engineering teacher is really partial to Scrum boards. I kind of get how they work, but have a difficult time conveying their use and importance to students.

Do you just dive in and make guesses at times and adjust along the way?